Road safety sign 'could cause accidents'

Drivers negotiating a tricky bend have complained they are being dangerously
distracted by a road safety poster urging them to keep their eyes on the
road.

West Yorkshire Safer Roads Group's poster is positioned on the side of a bridge and on a bend close to the village of CopleyPhoto: ROSS PARRY

9:16AM BST 15 Sep 2010

The warning, positioned on a 90 degree corner, has been introduced as part of a campaign to improve rural road safety.

Its message to drivers begins: "Oiiiii eyes on the road."

It continues in smaller text "What's so important? Concentrate on the road."

The Safer Roads Group in West Yorkshire, who have set up similar messages across the county, is hoping to highlight the issue among thoughtless drivers but some who use a B-road on the way into the village of Copley say it could send them headlong into a collision.

Geoffrey Williams, 44, who uses the road pictured on his way home from work every day, said: "I can understand the message but surely placing a poster like this on a very difficult bend is going to cause someone to crash."

"I think it's bad enough anyway they are trying to get people to concentrate on the road but surely for this message to get across people would have to read it.

"However, to do it on this bend is even more of a nonsense. It is notorious round here, there is a difficult camber to negotiate and it's very tight so if you even glanced up it could be a problem.

"When I first drove past it a few days back I was stunned, it is ridiculous if someone read the small print which is the point of the message they could plough into someone coming the other way. It's an accident waiting to happen."